Category Archives: pals

As previously mentioned, my classmate from high school had a new movie that came out a few days ago called ‘Phantom’. So my other friend John suggested a bunch of us go see the movie last night (Sunday) and we did, many with our spouses. There were close to 20 of us there and we of course got all excited when we saw Wayne in shots (another class mate who is an actor) and I recognized Todd’s daughter who played Ed Harris’ daughter in the movie. Todd really had to do his research on Russian submarines! The year was 1968. Lots of action and a twist at the end. The guys will love this one!

At the end of the movie, Scott, our reunion coordinator had Todd on the phone and we were all cheering him on. That was very cool.

Afterwards, about 11 of us went to a sports bar a bit down the road for a late dinner. We gave my other pal Tom a ride in the Cruiser. It wasn’t too noisy and we got to catch up with my ‘back yard’ neighbor Bethann who came to her first reunion/mini reunion get-together!

I’m next to Tom and John is on the other end. We play ‘Song Pop’ on Facebook and usually are pretty neck to neck.

Sean and I have had colds this week. He is sicker than me, but still is plugging away. I thought I’d be blowing my nose like crazy, well I have done that enough, but it’s the achiness that is getting to me. I wanted to do something distracting, so I pulled out my ‘Smash’ book. This is a book I bought over a year ago. A smash book is like a scrapbook, but you ‘jam’ more stuff into it. I tend to be a little more organized than that. Here is what I started out with:

That’s one of those fold up organizers I am using. The stuff in the top wants to fall out all the time.

This is my ‘Abbey Road on the River’ spread from when we went to the Beatles tribute event in Aug./Sept. 2011 and 2012. We saw the guitar that George Harrison is posing with in this photo. I got a catalog in the mail and lo and behold, George was on the cover. I really liked the shot, so I used it in my Smash book.

I have a paper I hand wrote near George that tells about the Beatles tribute event. The pocket has the programs from the two years that we attended plus a postcard and bookmark The little ‘Peeps’ picture is because they are a sponsor. We probably won’t go again for a while as we weren’t happy with the way it was run last year.

It’s hard to believe our New York trip was almost a year ago! I wish I felt like I did back then. The left side has a bumper sticker from the 9-11 Memorial store-seeing that was a big thing. There’s a receipt from the store and the little envelope holds a card describing the purchase of a metal cast leaf I bought (the tree will grow at the sight). The next page is a happier one-Sean holding an umbrella next to Radio City Music Hall (we had a bit of gloomy visit the first night and day and then it got chilly and windy); a card from Tinsel Trading Company-a store I wanted to see that sold millinery and crafty things; and the description of the caramels I bought from Dylan’s candy bar. Oh…the mustache is from the Lorax movie! He was visiting at Dylan’s.

Brian took me to see the Van Gogh exhibit at the Philadelphia Art Museum around April 1st. We weren’t allowed to take photos of the exhibit, but I took plenty of shots around the museum. The one on the right is from the mailer and that’s the the pamphlet of from show. When you open the pamphet, A Rembrandt card (shaped like him) is there-see his foot? We saw a few of his works of art, plus I bought this in the gift shop.

In June, we had our Delmarva trip. I met up with a internet pal Rachael and we headed over to the art museum to see the Andy Warhol exhibit. It was great to meet her. I bought the Andy card in the gift shop (the Rembrandt one looks like this) and some postcards of his most famous works.

The last page I worked on yesterday was about the November election we went to see both the First Lady Michelle Obama (in August) and then President Bill Clinton a few days before the 2012 election. I have the email about picking up the tickets, the tickets in the holder, stickers and some ballot ends.

So on the health front, I’m still fighting these body aches and fatigue. I seem worse since I have had the cold. I missed work, but heard a bunch of others called out sick on Wednesday too. My cold wasn’t what made me feel blah-it was the body aches! I got an appointment at a rheumatologist office at the beginning of March. I googled about menopause and arthritis and didn’t something come up! Seems there is a parallel. I am looking into going to another doctor specializing in hormonal issues. At this point, I can’t hardly do anything without having to sit down in half an hour. I’ll probably call the doctor near my hometown later. I want to be able to add more pages to my smash book!

Keep my mom and brother in your thoughts and prayers as my brother’s Dalmation Baxter appears to be at the end of his life. Mom thinks he’s at least 13 or 14 (maybe older). He is in a lot of pain, it takes him 5 minutes to lay down and he has hardly any bowel control at this point. He is on medicine, but yesterday he was just so miserable. Such a sad time.

My friend Angela (who I met through a local pal on the internet about 13-14 yrs ago) was down in southern Chester County to go to….can you guess? Longwood Gardens! She arrived in the afternoon of Thanksgiving when I was a tad busy, but Brian and I were able to have dinner with Ang and her hubby Bob the next evening. We had a nice Italian dinner and they really enjoyed it as that’s the kind of food Bob likes the best. We exchanged birthday gifts. Angela made me from sweet items, a little book made with cardboard houses and she decorated each front differently. And she made some cute hanging decorations, one with a ‘D’. I’ll have to photograph them. I gave her one of the 4″ x 4″ collages of with an antique print of a lady and child and birds in a pretty frame.

Here we are after dinner

Brian has a little problem with the camera phone,

because with the same camera I got this shot last night:

Brian is standing there in the white and red hat looking like he is getting ready for Christmas!

A fella from my high school has a bonfire event at his house each year, but usually on Black Friday. He switched it to Saturday and boy did he have a crowd. There were people from many different years of high school, but I only knew about 8 people at the time we were there. That fire sure got hot. There were about 3-4 large tables of food-barbecued meats, chili and mac and cheese, desserts. I took a bean dip and finger foods not knowing what I brought would be such a small amount. Bill was so nice. He said they have a little cooking competition with the chili and when we left he hugged and kissed me, thanking us for coming. : ) I saw a few of the same ladies who were at the pumpkin carve a few weeks earlier.

We stopped by my mom’s house as she wanted me to get some birthday gifts. I had asked for sheets and she delivered. Also got a big red mercury glass owl and Brian had gotten me a smaller one. I see a Christmas vignette in the making. We had a good time, and Brian seemed to loosen up a bit at the bonfire. It’s been a rough year for him. My brother had decorated the front windows of my mom’s house with clear lights and mostly red decorations. Inside he had started to set up his lighted houses-a harbor scene-very nice!

Today was the funeral of my high school pal John’s mom. If I ever met Mrs. D., it was probably an occasion like graduation, but I have a feeling we never spoke. Over the last 4 years or so, I’ve gotten to know John and his family and felt like I needed to go and let them know we appreciate them and the important part in their lives Mrs. D played. I’ve seen photos of her as a little girl to a 90 year old lady. I had a feeling special memories would be shared and they were, from a few grandchildren, a cousin and a classmate of John and me. It made me think back to my Grandmom Ruth’s memorial service in 2000 and how only a friend of my mom’s (besides her) could talk as her grandchildren were a mess.

It was like reading a true life story and listening to special nuggets of this family’s life. John’s cousin offered some Biblical touches which were nice. I agreed with him in that people shouldn’t blame God for misfortune as it’s definitely something evil like Satan doing the dirty work. People forget God is Love and all that is good in our lives. I appreciate that reminder.

So do take the time to tell your friends that you do care for them! Some of the best times I’ve had in the last few years is meeting my online pals in real life. I wish I could with each and every person who had been so nice to me over the years. : )

Today a few of my pals with their adorable children met up with me at a local cross stitch shop. Jennifer has a little fellow who will be three in a couple of months. He’s a doll and I’ve met him when he as a baby and as a two year old. He really notices everything around him, a detail guy. My other pal Rachel brought her 2.5 yr old son and 5 month old daughter. The boys hit it off well and took to running around the shop a bit. I think if we do that again, I’ll bring some paper and crayons or something so their moms can look around better. I sure needed the inspiration to stitch seeing all the shop’s lovely pieces. Jennifer found a Chincoteague sampler-had to get that one. I should make that ‘next on my list’ to do as J and R can be my stitchy cheerleaders. Rachel’s children were so adorable. I was so happy to meet them for the first time. The little girl was a bit fussy as she is use to a routine and likes to nap after she eats. Both J and I got to hold her and we got some smiles too!

I am blessed to have pals like this. Jennifer helped me through some hard times lately when I had some personal issues. Rachel is a family counselor and you feel good being around her. Both sweet ladies and great moms. I hope I can share some of my experiences as a mom of a boy to them. Being around kids takes me back many years when Sean was little and when I was an assistant teacher at a daycare. Everything is so new to them at this age and they so want to learn.

Since my whirlwind of activity is dying down, I can get down to brass tacks again with blogging. I went and got my mom on Saturday for a two day visit. We all went over to the father-in-law’s house to wish him a Happy 89th Birthday. From the get go, I felt pops was uncomfortable having my mom and me there. Brian and Sean were installing his new a/c (birthday gift) in his room and it was a messy job. Well Bri’s dad starts up about something ‘we need for the house’. I’d rather not say exactly what it is (send me a note if you want to know) and I said we didn’t really need it right now. Well he wouldn’t let it go and got mad at me and left the living room to sit in the family room. He’s living in a 4 bedroom split level. Mom and I were shook up and I took the car down to a local shopping center so pops would simmer down. We never did go back in the house again and never sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to him. I sure was hoping it would make him happy to have a house full of people (well almost), but that didn’t happen. It was going on 6:30 and we had to go out to eat. Too bad pops wasn’t along, but he got so grumpy that it ruined our visit.

So….we were away from early Monday to late Thursday. Our trip didn’t quite go as planned. Monday and Tuesday we were in Virginia Beach and had a nice time. We got on the road Wednesday to head to Williamsburg, but got in traffic as the tunnel there had a disabled vehicle. We got off at an exit, tried to go another way, but of course they weren’t letting anyone in. We heard it was a 5-9 mile backup, so we decided to go to Norfolk, VA for an hour and see if that changed. We tried to see the historic society, but that was closed and they were painting. We got to see the nice garden and only a few of the buildings there. We passed by the General Douglas MacArthur statue.

Here are a few Norfolk shots:

The city in the late 1880s

The backup never got better, and we had to go to Chincoteague later, so we headed to the Virginia Aquarium in Virginia Beach. It’s a neat one!

Turtles sunning themselves in the entrance area-it was very warm here.

Wow, a Komodo Dragon. He was checking everyone out!

I like this shot

Menacing sharks

Lion fish

Jelly fish-amazing!

A few more shots from Virginia Beach

The King Neptune statue was amazing and had a cache hidden under it-shhhhhh!

Sean and me under him!

Tuesday I got to met Rachael who I know from cross stitching and Facebook. She is from CA, but lived in Germany for a while, now is in VB as her hubby is working out of Norfolk. We went to the Contemporary Art Museum to see an Andy Warhol exhibit. We couldn’t take photos of the Warhol art, but I did think this glass chandelier was fascinating.

Well I was up in air as to what to do today as it was a bit breezy, but warm. Longwood Gardens is having their orchid displays until the end of March, so I decided to go for walk and some photo taking. I renewed my membership for the year which went up $5, but they also give you two free tickets for your guests. It pays for itself after about four times.

Here are some of my favorite shots:

What you see when you enter the one end of the conservatory
A very tame squirrel. I had fun editing this for a friend
White columns of orchids
Begonias and Aechmea
Amazing Stargazer lilies
One of my favorite flowers-Blue Poppies
Hanging orchids and an archway
A trained Nectarine tree with blooms
Yellow butterfly bushes that smelled like exotic honey.
A moth-like orchid the Calathea
Take it from the Longwood gardeners-how to prune a rose bush-many only had one or two main stems!
Mother of Thousands plant
I’ve been taking Olive leaf capsules for my blood pressure (think it is helping-thanks Dr. Oz). Here is an Olive tree
There are more photos in Flickr-just click on a photo above.